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Indie Horror Film Shows What You Can Do (And Get) For Free
Wescotte writes "The Amateur Monster Movie is the first feature length film by King's Tower Productions and writer/director Kyle Richards, all filmed within an hour of Milwaukee, WI over the course of 57 days during the summers of 2009 and 2010. It was shot as a 'no-budget' film and the entire cast and crew worked for free on owned or borrowed equipment. After a few film festival appearances, highlighted by the Wisconsin Film Festival, and — a cast and crew favorite — the Oshkosh Horror Film Festival, Richards decided to release the film for free online, a move intended to encourage more movies and media to do the same and allow free media access to everyone online. The film can be streamed from Vimeo and YouTube or downloaded via torrent at Pirate Bay, KAT, and magnet link. More information and production stills can be found at the Facebook Page, and IMDB." The acting is straightforwardly campy, but (promise or warning) the gory, zero-budget special effects start about four minutes in.
I'll leave this here: Vodo
Great stuff there
So the magnet link was broken, but tinyurl supports magnets , because slashdot mangles magnetlinks.
Preferably one set in NYC. I hear there is a *huge* demand for that genre.
Maybe I should start advertising for it in my sig...
You're thinking of circletimessquare. I think he changed it a while back. Dunno what ever happened with the film he was supposedly making.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Most of them are utter shit. And this one is really no exception. The issue here is that people grant enormous amounts of leeway for something that is "no budget", because they recognize that it's difficult. Lighting and good cinematography can be expensive. But there are workarounds.
There are also certain areas where budget shouldn't matter: Writing. Dialogue. Acting. Etc.
This film is particularly weak on those counts. This isn't a "support group" like most film festivals are. This is the real world.
The film is amateurish on countless scales which have little to do with "budget".
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Hey everybody, I made this movie. I was the writer, director, producer, co-editor, and an actor, and I did a bunch of other shit too such as remove hiss from over 900 individual audio clips! It was awesome. If anyone is interested in knowing anything about this great film please ask me and I will be happy to try and answer. Thanks for giving the movie a watch, I'm happy to have your support!
You might interested in watching The Time Machine (I found at a yardsale). It's by far the worst movie I've ever seen and I can't tell if it's a joke or not. I mean The cost of renting the camera they used in this film for a single day was at least twice the shooting budget of The Amateur Monster Movie for all ~60 days in production!
Either way if you enjoy watching train wrecks it's a pretty interesting film. The "orange juice" scene at ~5:30 is particularly amazing. Also if you don't make it in far enough to notice.. After about 15 minutes the entire rest of the film is green screen work.
There are also certain areas where budget shouldn't matter: Writing. Dialogue. Acting. Etc.
Seriously? Writing and dialogue does not need any budget? Getting both right requires a great deal of time and work, which, incidentally is equivalent with money.
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
"It's not straling, it's copyright infringrmrnt."
Blank until
I don't know why "the haters"are coming out lock, stock, and fold. For one, this is an attempt at reclaiming the art of movie making from the big budget, mafiaa studios. Instead of judging the movie by comparison to these big budget studios, watch it for what it is and enjoy the fact that it was made by some everyday, above-average joes. I'm going to watch it now.
Most of the commercial, professionally-made films are utter shit too.
How often do you need to see Bruce Willis/Nicholas Cage/Vin Diesel/Other Replaceable Hero running away from a CG explosion/plane crash/earthquake/tsunami before you realise you've just paid a tenner to watch a bunch of video game cutscenes strung together?
Time does not equal money. One may sell his time, but there are quite a few who will give it to you for free.
Of course time equals money. Even when it's being given away for free the author usually hopes to build up a portfolio or something similar. Good writers are hard to find, and get paid well. My time isn't free either, so if a movie sucks I'm not going to put my time into watching it, free or not. It's hard to find unbiased reviews however.
Just watched the entire thing. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, the premise and story is silly but these guys clearly have a fundamental understanding of how to make a movie were The Time Machine probably do not... I think given some money and the desire to do it these guys could probably pull off an actually watchable film.
Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of Fast Five - YouTube
I wonder if the auteur is familiar with the work of Bill Rebane.
I'd like to just get my two-cents in about SAG-AFTRA, the main actors' union filmmakers have to deal with these days. I make films too, and while I submit them to film festivals, just like this film I prefer to release it free online when it's out of the film festival circuit. While SAG-AFTRA does have accommodations for no budget films, where you don't have to pay the actors professional rates (actors, both union and non-union, often will work for free or very low compensation, mainly for the experience), they have a seemingly arbitrary limitation on how you can distribute the film afterward. A SAG-AFTRA rep told me that I could show my films in film festivals, or online (new media), but not both. If I distributed the film on both, they require me to adhere to the laundry list of standards enforced on big budget productions, including compensating each actor at $100/day. So basically, if you recruit a SAG-AFTRA actor for a no budget production, your film will get swept under the carpet after it's out of the festivals. My advice to indie filmmakers... do not consider union actors. Hold longer auditions if necessary.
Most of the commercial, professionally-made films are utter shit too.
You can easily avoid these if you spend 10 seconds reading a review before you head to the theatre. Lincoln, Life of Pi, Skyfall - All were excellent "commercial, professionally-made" films made by people who were paid for their work.
it's now rare for even writers with multiple NYT best-sellers to make enough to quit their "day" job.
Most serious professional writers do have to earn extra money by doing lectures, journalism, or whatever. That does not mean they don't still spend most of their time writing. They're not working 60-80 hours a week as lawyers or programmers.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it